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Four Seasons Beaumont Breeze February, 2015

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COMMUNITY NEWS | FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2015 11 Did You Know? By Bobbie Eckel DID YOU KNOW THAT FEB. 27 IS POLAR BEAR DAY? Although Holiday Insights website on interesting special days did not have a source for the origin of the day, polar bears are certainly interesting enough to warrant their own day. Polar bears apparently evolved about five million years ago from brown bear land-based cousins. Their adaption to survival in the Far North on a sea ice habitat is very interesting. They hunt seals, primarily ringed seals, at openings in sea ice called "leads." Although adult male polar bears weigh from 775 to 1200 pounds the females are much smaller, weighing in from 330 to 650 pounds. Five nations have polar bear populations: the United States (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway. Females usually bear two cubs who stay with their moms for as long as 2 ½ years. Now you know where to go to see the polar bears. A trip to the largest zoo in the area would also be a good source for viewing these large carnivores. While you are observing them, see if you can tell if polar bears are left-handed. Holiday Insights did offer this belief, but did not substantiate it. DID YOU KNOW THAT FEB. 1 IS NATIONAL FREEDOM DAY? This day is intended to remind citizens that America is the symbol of freedom and that this freedom is important to all of us. The day celebrates the end of slavery; President Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery on Feb. 1, 1865. The National Freedom Day was actually created by Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr., a former slave, to commemorate the fact that we are all free. President Harry Truman on June 30, 1948, signed a bill proclaiming Feb. 1 as National Freedom Day. DID YOU KNOW THAT FEB. 8 IS BOY SCOUT DAY? In 1910, on Feb. 8, Chicago publisher William Dickson Boyce filed incorporation papers in the District of Columbia to create the Boy Scouts of America. Boyce was following the example of Lord Baden-Powell who founded Boy Scouts in the 1900s in Great Britain. Baden-Powell also published the first scouting manual, Scouting for Boys. According to the Boy Scouts of America website, Scouts are the largest youth organization in the United States with 10 million youth members and over 1 million adults. DID YOU KNOW THAT FEB. 10 IS UMBRELLA DAY? Isn't it amazing that an invention so commonplace has its own special day? Although they now come in all sizes, the first umbrellas were for protection from the sun and probably originated in China in the 11th century BC, according to Oakthrift Corporation's History of Umbrellas. Oakthrift also makes a distinction between a "parasol" which is considered a sun shade and an "umbrella," which served as a rain protector, although this distinction apparently only evolved during the late 18th century. If you have time on Feb. 10, do look up the Oakthrift Corporation details about the history of umbrellas on the Internet. It is fascinating reading and you will have a myriad of details for your trivia games!

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